August 26, 2013 3:29 pm

The news on the injury front concerning the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive line was not good, as head coach Pete Carroll talked to reporters after practice today.

Carroll said the team’s projected starter at “Leo” defensive end, Cliff Avril, re-aggravated a hamstring injury that kept him out of last week’s game at Green Bay.

“That was a whole week ago,” Carroll said. “That was way back when. It seems like old news to me. But that’s why he didn’t practice much last week.”

Carroll said he doesn’t know if Avril will be ready for the team’s season opener at Carolina.

The Seahawks also suffered another setback up front during practice, with defensive tackle Brandon Mebane suffering a groin injury midway through the team’s two-hour workout. Mebane watched the rest of practice from the sideline.

“He had a little groin thing today,” Carroll said. “We’ll see what that means.”

Carroll said the team decided to place rookie defensive tackle Jesse Williams on the season-ending injured list because he could not work through a lingering knee issue.

“It’s going to take him a long time, so (we wanted) to give him the consideration to get it right,” Carroll said. “This is the right thing we can do for Jesse. And he did everything we asked of him, and looked good when he had his chances. But his knee wasn’t holding up, so we had to give him a big break.”

Carroll went on to say that Williams looked really hobbled in the Denver game two weeks ago.

With Williams on the injured reserve, and Jordan Hill out with a strained bicep, it would appear Tony McDaniel has earned the starting defensive tackle job by default. But Carroll would not name McDaniel the starter yet.

“Tony had a nice game,” Carroll said. “He did well. He was active, and was aggressive. He knocked a ball down, got some movement in his pass rush. We were happy with the way he played, so we’re going to need to put another week together.

“I’ve been telling you for a long time that it’s going to be the whole preseason to figure it out. I would love to see him come back and have another big game.”

Carroll said that defensive end Chris Clemons will remain on the physically unable to perform (PUP list, and will not practice this week. The Seahawks still have a tough decision to make on whether to put Clemons on the active roster for Week 1 of the regular season, or keep him on the PUP list at the beginning of the season.

And that decision has been made even tougher with Avril’s lingering hamstring issues.

“His workout, the one I watched on film I think was yesterday, was a terrific workout,” Carroll said about Clemons. “He was out here for 40-something minutes straight working. He’s taking all of that, and he’s going to continue to take the next step to start pushing on people and all of that.

“He’s making great progress. I don’t know how close he is weeks-wise or games-wise, or any of that. But when I talked to him today, he feels really good. And he’s excited that he’s getting closer to it.”

Competition is on at RB
Carroll indicated that rookie Christine Michael is in a battle with Robert Turbin for the No. 2 spot at running back, and he threw Marshawn Lynch in there for good measure.

“The competition is on,” Carroll said. “And Marshawn, too.”

Michael has shown impressive explosiveness in the open field, along with an extra gear that Turbin and Lynch don’t appear to have.

And while Michael has made more splash plays than Turbin did his rookie season in exhibition play, Carroll admitted that Michael still has a ways to go in mastering Seattle’s offense.

“He has made a real flashy first impression,” Carroll said about Michael. “And we’re excited about it. He’s doesn’t have the whole thing yet. He has a lot of work to do. He’s not always reading things properly. But he surely shows a suddenness that gives you a chance to feel that he’s going to bust something. So it’s great to see him in the passing game too, helping us out.”

Carroll said that rookie Spencer Ware jammed his wrist the first or second play he was in against Green Bay, which is why he didn’t play very much against the Packers. Carroll said Ware will play against Oakland this week.

Injury update

Carroll said the team decided to rest cornerback Antoine Winfield against Green Bay because he had a sore knee. Winfield returned to practice today, and Carroll said he’s feeling good.

Tight end Zach Miller practiced fully today, as the team tries to get him ready for the Carolina game. Carroll said that Miller likely will not play on Thursday against Oakland.

“He probably could play this week, and he wants to play this week,” Carroll said. “We’ll figure that out by the end of the week. We’ve been shooting for the opener the whole time.”

Offensive lineman James Carpenter also returned to practice after sitting out for a few weeks with a foot issue. Carpenter got a handful of snaps with the starters at left guard today.

“It was great to see Carp back out there,” Carroll said. “He got a heck of a workout today. And it’s always about how he comes back the next day, and we’ll add them up.”

Fullback Michael Robinson returned to practice today as a spectator, after missing most of last week with an undisclosed illness. Carroll described Robinson as violently ill with an undisclosed illness last week.

“He was really sick,” Carroll said. “And there’s still some concerns about whatever he’s got, and he’s still trying to figure it out.”

Others who did not practice today include Sidney Rice (knee) and Jeron Johnson, who had a family matter to attend to.

Gresham gets a new deal
With the Seahawks releasing long snapper Kyle Nelson, the inevitable occurred today. Starting long snapper Clint Gresham, who was slapped with a restricted tender contract of $1.3 million, signed a two-year extension, $1.655 million extension with the Seahawks, according to Brian McIntyre of Yahoo Sports.

Seahawks LS Clint Gresham, an RFA, has agreed to a two-year, $1.655M contract, per league source. Now signed through 2014

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

LV, actually Eric said that they have until week 15 to decide. I know that they have at least until week 12. They have at least 3 weeks from the start of week 7 to have the player start practicing and at least 3 weeks from that date to activate or IR them.

I guess Moffitt for a DL player starts to make sense.
Get rid of underachieving and immature player to send clear message to the rest of the team and get a huge body in the middle of the Defense, Just in case … Someone to replace injured Hill and IRed “Monsta”.

I have all fingers and toes crossed for carp to finally be ready to be an every game player. That would let us move mcQ over and get wheezy off the field while he learns the pass pro game. Actually hoping bialy or Bowie to take that spot soon for a nice 10 year run…

Avril…. Dammit. I dunno if he is sandbagging or not, I’ve pulled hammies back when I played baseball, and they are tough to deal with for sure. Mega stretching is so important pre- everything

CA’s 10 sacks for DET in 2012 was due in part to DET’s DTs soaking up blockers, but maybe PC/Quinn can scheme CA to best advantage to help him duplicate that productivity(?) And pray that CC is healthy in week 7.

As far as how well Moffitt played for DEN vs STL, PFF didn’t list him as having played in the game at all (even though the NFL gamebook had him playing at guard as a substitute.) It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen mistakes in gamebooks, and the NFL never seems to correct them.

It was interesting that in PC’s interview he spoke of how well he thought M.Bowie played vs GB. He subbed in for McQ at LG for 15 run and 21 pass plays, nearly the same number of plays as McQ played, but mostly against backups Datone Jones and Mike Daniels (GB cut Gilbert Pena – not sure about Mike Neal). That may be enough drop off in performance from GB’s CJ Wilson to explain the slightly better performance PFF recorded for M.Bowie over McQ, but it’s interesting to me that PC noted Bowie’s performance (even though Bowie allowed a QB hit plus a hurry). It would sure be great to at least have an OL settled on that could play together for the next ten years or so…

Classic political move. It’s pretty obvious PC didn’t want to talk about Avril so he cut it off and went to a friendly questioner (Ventrella) to ask about players that are getting healthy. Just had to mention that because it was so obvious from the video.

Mebane watched the rest of practice as opposed to spending it in the training room. At least that’s a sign that it’s not serious. Wasn’t too worried about the d-line injuries, but Week 1 is getting closer and the increased number of wounded is discouraging.

Well, we are playing the Panthers week 1. I don’t think we need to be at full strength for that game. The week after we do and thus, some guys could miss that Panthers game if need be. Of course, we’d all like to see every one playing.

I hate the RW3 moniker, but the #3 is for his jersey number, not a suffix of his name, which does not exist. I don’t like it because it obviously tries to tie him to RG3. Stupid. I don’t want Wilson to try to emulate broken knees.

Carolina’s defensive front 7 is pretty darn good. I think they match up pretty well with the ‘Hawks running game. I also think the Seahawks can pass them silly and the ‘Hawks defense is WAY better than Carolina’s offense. Our D should give the O lots of chances to put up some points and the O is good enough to put up maybe 24 points, plus whatever the Defense and Special Teams might score.

I think we all knew that Jesse Williams was an IR listing waiting to happen, right? 31 teams don’t pass on a guy like that for four rounds unless he has a medical problem.

So perhaps the Seahawks considered Jesse a 2014 project all along. We’ll see if a year makes a difference to that knee.

Makes me wonder, also. What if we had followed the other teams and followed doctors’ advice and not drafted Williams. We could have drafted Montori Hughes in the same spot in the 5th round. He’s a 330-lb monster DT who could be backing up Mebane right now. Seahawks may have blown it there.

Bruce Irvin will be given every chance at LB. PC is evasive at times but he never ever lies. He knew BI would be suspended and continued to play him at LB. That tells me BI is going to live or die as a LB. Give or take the concept of hybrid positions and all the other usual disclaimers…

If anyone has earned money in the NFL they did not deserve based on past performance AND will never be able to justify it’s Matt Flynn. At least Harvin and Avril will come close to earning their contracts in the future.

ray – good point about Buffalo and Tjack! Some of you may not have seen that Jeff Tuel (WSU) is starting qb for Week 1 vs Patriots. I believe first undrafted qb starter since 1967. Good opportunity for him to hopefully cement a backup qb job when EJ gets back. Looks like Kolb is done.

“Lets go back just one season before anybody starts saying things like ‘ at least we only play the Panthers so we don’t have to be at full strength’.”

Totally agree, not a gimme game, esp on the road. We’re good, but we’ve proven zero in the ’13 season. I do expect PC will have our guys ready. We have the feel of a hungry team, so I’m hoping for better road performances this season.

“There must be peace and understanding sometime”
“Strong secondary of promise that will blow you away”
“All the doubt and fear”
“If we can dream of a better year”
“Where hope keeps shining on everyone”
‘Tell me why, oh why, oh why wont this team appear”

RDPoulsbo….I am totally with you on hating the RW3 nickname for all the reasons you mentioned.
I’ve been waiting 35 years for the Seahawks to get a franchise QB, and they may finally have him.
His name is Wilson. Just like the name on the ball.

– Wilson took us back a year to the day he found out he was going to start for the Seahawks: “One of the equipment guys comes over and says hey Russ, Coach Carroll wants to see you. He’s actually outside shooting baskets. He’s doing Michael Jordan fadeaways and I’m trying to figure out what’s going on.” Wilson said that’s when he told him the news. And Wilson said that he immediately thought of his father, who has passed, and thinks he was up high looking on and smiling.

Agree with chuck as I was at the AZ game last year and there were a large number of Seahawk fans walking around. Everyone with feeling super confident and many of the Cardinal fans were nervous and concerned. That all changed in the first few minutes of the game. Terrible O-line blocking and all of a sudden, we couldn’t move the ball or score. AZs defense was all over that game. Still had several chances at the end of the game to pull out the win, but the team just didn’t make enough plays and lost. I was on the 15 yard line near the endzone that Baldwin broke his teeth out trying to catch the winning TD. That game sucked and as was mentioned it looked like our guys believed it was the fifth preseason game. Nobody told the Cardinals and if anybody thinks for one second that Carolina will be a pushover, they are sadly mistaken. Especially after we barely escaped last year with a win at 16-12.

I also agree the RW3 thing needs to go away. He’s Russell Wilson. We don’t need a version nickname similar to RG3. Russell is his own man with his own style. I think it’s kinda insulting to call him that actually.

“There comes a time when we heed a certain call”
“When the Seahawk fans must come together as one”
“This team is trying”
“To make it to the promise land”
“And get the greatest gift of all”

“We can’t go on pretending day by day”
“That this team somehow won’t make a change”
“We are all a part of the Seahawks big family”
“And the truth, you know”
“Wilson is about all we need”

“We are the Seahawks, but not without Wilson”
“We are the ones who make the NFL bright”
“So lets start giving”
“There’s a choice we’re making”
“We’re gonna win the west”
“Its true we’ll be the better team”
“For all to see”

Lawrence Jackson cut by the Vikes. Doesn’t that mean the last 2 first rounders of the Ruskell era were pretty much a bust? Sure makes me glad we’ve got JS and PC running the show now. And hats off to our scouting department. Can’t say enough good things about them.

I’ve been waiting 35 years for the Seahawks to get a franchise QB, and they may finally have him.
His name is Wilson. Just like the name on the ball.

Best post of the day, Seahawk44
The Cards are bad as well as buffalo, there are good teams coming but we find a way to win. If we get the division we will host a playoff game or two and maybe even have Harvin as our X factor.

Sluggo, They usually show the last preseason game with the Raiders live on KTLA but not this year for some reason. America’s Top Model is on instead.. RW3 and the boys are on at midnight and 8pm Friday.

Just to jump on the band wagon, I can’t imagine how anyone could be convinced that a 10 am, East Coast game would be a cakewalk for the Hawks. History suggests differently.

Georgia, where you been hiding, bro? Did I miss when you explained how your song parody addiction started?

sluggo, best case scenario, Bailey grabs the RT spot from Breno after 2014. Either Bowie grabs RG or The Sweeze figures out how to pass block adequately. They have some serious talent IMO. Not likely that all 3 work out though. I was somewhat surprised that they didn’t go after Eric Winston for RT this off-season.

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